Auto Racing

Goulart to race in Grand-Am at Lime Rock Saturday BY ROGER CLEAVELAND REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Growing up in Brazil in an athletic and competitive family, Elivan Goulart figured one of the true passions in life seemed pre-destined to be either soccer or auto racing, given the huge popularity of those two sports there.

"I played soccer for a while including a couple years in high school, but it just wasn't my forte," Goulart said. "I just didn't get the soccer gene. Unfortunately, I got the more expensive gene."

While the expensive nature of auto racing never allowed Goulart to become the next Ayrton Senna or Nelson Piquet, he feels very fortunate. He moved to Connecticut at age 11 to live with his grandparents and pursue the American dream, and 20 years later he feels like he's living it.

Married with two young children and making a living in a profession he's been passionate about since watching his father race professionally in Brazil, the 31-year-old from Shelton races this weekend at Lime Rock Park in the Grand-Am Road Racing Series season finale.

Goulart has embraced auto racing with such passion that he's basically created two full-time and two part-time jobs for himself.

As the vice president of the Deep River-based Sports Car Driving Association, he basically provides class room instruction and on-course opportunities for the average guy with a Corvette, BMW or other sports car who wants to experience what it is like to drive on some of the premier tracks in the Northeast.

He rents track time at places like Lime Rock, Watkins Glen and New Hampshire and organizes events allowing people to drive fast in a safe, non-competitive manner.

He serves in a similar capacity on a part-time basis as a lead instructor for the Lime Rock Drivers Club, which provides members private access to the track throughout the year. In addition, Goulart works full-time for Volkswagen of American as a product tester and sales coach.

Of course, his second part-time job is racing professionally. He'll do so Friday in the first of two days of the Grand-Am Rolex Sports Car Series & Continental Tire Challenge Championship. On a day utilized primarily for practice and qualifying, the Continental Tire Challenge Sports Tuner class in which Goulart will compete serves as the feature event with a 2½-hour race.

He'll race the No. 60 BMW 128i for Mitchum Motorsports along with Lime Rock Drivers Club member Rob Nimkoff from Weston.

"The opportunity came for me, and my logic was that Robert would be a perfect fit as my teammate because he races a BMW and Lime Rock is his home track," Goulart said. "We have some obstacles and challenges. We aren't regulars in the series, and this will be the first time we drive the car.

"Having said that, we definitely are going there to win. Having a great teammate, an established team and track familiarity are good ingredients for a winning combination."

Both Goulart and Nimkoff are proven winners.

Nimkoff, a former real estate investor and seafood industry executive, is pursuing motorsports full-time now both as a racer and industry executive. Over the past three years, he has finished second in the PRO-IT SCCA Series (twice) and the North Atlantic Road Racing Championship. His personal highlight this season was finishing second out of 17 competitors in the Aston Martin support race on the Le Mans La Sarthe 24 Hour circuit in France.

Goulart has won three SCCA National Championships, earning the Formula 500 class championships in 2001 and 2002, and winning the Spec Miata championship last year. From the time he started racing go-karts at age 11 through last year's championship, he has won an incredible 50 percent of his races.

Goulart has raced in several Grand-Am events this season and loves the competition. Grand-Am is the road racing and sports car arm of NASCAR, so he said it is very well run. Fans this weekend will get to see some of the most exciting racing of the season, because season championships are up for grabs in all the classes.

Saturday's racing will include the Continental Tire Challenge Grand Sport race (2 ½ hours) in addition to the Rolex Sports Car Series 2-hour, 45-minute feature race that includes seven Daytona Prototype cars and 16 GT cars on the track at the same time.

"It's a very exciting series to watch," Goulart said. "The series has made huge progress through the years, and is really up and coming now. NASCAR has a really good thing going on. The class I'm racing has 35 cars and is probably the most competitive road racing series in the U.S. right now with a huge car count, highly skilled professional drivers and quality teams."

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